Politics
Northern govs supporting Buhari’s re-election owe no one apology, El-Rufai says
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has said that northern governors owe no apologies to any one for throwing their full weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election bid.
He stated this soon after seven state governors from the northern part of the country had a closed-door meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday.
El-Rufai, who spoke on behalf of the other state governors from Yobe, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Adamawa and Kano states, said that northern governors were committed to ensure Buhari continues as president to complete eight year tenure and have no apologies for their decision.
El-Rufai told State House correspondents, “We are politicians and those of us you see here want the President to contest the 2019 election. We have no apologies for that.
“We believe in Mr. President, we want him to continue running the country in the right direction. People can speculate about 2019, we have no apologies. Whether they are right or wrong is beside the point.
“Everybody is entitled to his own opinion, but as governors, and most of us here with the exception of Yobe Governor, are first time governors, we are interested in continuity and stability and we want the president to continue with that.”
Earlier, some of the governors had joined Buhari to observe Jumat prayers inside a mosque located near his office.
READ ALSO: ADP rejects INEC timetable, says APC poised to rig 2019 elections
Meanwhile, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje told State House correspondents latter that the governors visited on separate purposes but decided to meet with the President together after the prayers to say “hello”.
He said, “We are seven in number here but we came separately, not for any purpose but after the Friday prayers, we decided to say hello to Mr. President. It is just a coincidence that we met in the mosque and some joined us later and we decided to go and greet him.”
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